This gallery contains 2 photos.
Feels like it’s time for an end-of-the-year wrap-up. I got myself an e-reader at the end of 2014, and so my reading in 2015 has been dominated by the nice, free-to-air output of Project Gutenberg. In other words, most of my … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
My journey through Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlockian shorts has come to an end with The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes – just in time for the new episode of Sherlock. The stories in this final collection were originally published in the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
Every month on Past Offences I gather together blog posts about crime fiction written or filmed in a particular year. Just before Christmas, Col persuaded me that 1950 would be a good year to look at, so here goes. If you want … Continue reading
And now for the fourth volume of Sherlock Holmes short stories, 1917’s His Last Bow. Not a high point in the Holmes canon, I feel. The stories were written between 1908 and 1917 (although US editions include 1892’s ‘The Adventure of … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
News has reached Past Offences that, fresh from their victory at the Royal Television Society Awards (Birmingham branch), the Father Brown team is airing series four beginning on the 4th of January. The BBC episode guide only looks at the first … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
British mystery writer E. C. R. Lorac wrote an impressive 48 novels, and another 23 under her second pen-name, Carol Carnac. The Lorac books usually feature her main series character, Chief Inspector Robert Macdonald, who stars in this title. Murder by Matchlight was … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
Casting around for something to read for this month’s Crimes of the Century, which is looking at 1941, I came across Philip Van Doren Stern’s article ‘The Case of the Corpse in the Blind Alley’ in VQR Online, the digitised archive … Continue reading
This gallery contains 2 photos.
I’ve been revisiting the Sherlock Holmes short stories recently, working through book-by-book and selecting some under-celebrated gems for your delectation. Now onto the Return, which sees Sherlock resurrected after his tragic fall from the Reichenbach Falls at the end of … Continue reading
In my bid to read the CWA top 100 crime books, I’ve come to the collected Sherlock Holmes short stories. Last time I looked at 1892’s The Adventures; now we’re on 1894’s The Memoirs. The Memoirs find Sherlock Holmes’ friend and … Continue reading
The Puzzle Doctor just commented that Christopher St John Sprigg’s Death of an Airman was his favourite British Library classic crime novel so far, making me wonder which was mine. If you haven’t picked up on them yet, the BL’s series has … Continue reading
Buy Father Brown series 5 (US visitors)
(UK visitors)
Past Offences: Classic crime, thrillers and mystery book reviews 